Lead in Group B

Victory against Wales! ÖFB U17s on course for promotion to the European Championships

A commanding victory against Wales.(Bild: GEPA)

Three days after a somewhat lackluster opening 0-0 draw against Croatia, Austria's U17 footballers have celebrated their first victory at the European Championship. 

In Larnaca on Thursday, coach Martin Scherb's team beat outsiders Wales 3:0 (1:0) to take the lead in Group B and thus have hopes of reaching the quarter-finals.

Mauro Hämmerle (30'), Valentin Zabransky (51') and Adrian Riegel (84') scored the first red-white-red goals of the tournament, with more to follow in the final group match against Denmark on Sunday (17:00 CEST). The Danes drew 2-2 with Croatia on Thursday and, like Austria, are on four points and in second place behind the Red-White-Red due to their inferior goal difference. Croatia are third with 2 points, while bottom-placed Wales are last. The top two in the group advance to the quarter-finals.

A convincing performance

We started the game really well today, which was very important. We managed to execute our match plan very well over long stretches," said Scherb. "We fully deserved to win in the end and could have won even higher."

Austria controlled the game from the start, but Hämmerle (3rd, 5th) did not create more than two good chances in the first half hour. But then the Augsburg youngster did score. An attempted shot from Jacob Hödl found its way to the Vorarlberg native, who fired into the far corner from twelve meters to take the lead.

Soon after the restart, Hämmerle missed the chance to make it 2:0, failing to beat the Welsh goalkeeper with a lob. Moments later, however, the latter made a mistake after a corner, which captain Zabransky took advantage of to make it 2:0 with a rebound and thus bring about the preliminary decision. Joker" Riegel then completed the scoring in the final.